10 SIMI activists arrested in Ahmedabad blasts, ISI involved: DGP

Ahmedabad, Aug 16 (UNI) The Gujarat Police claimed to have made a major breakthrough in the July 26 serial bomb blasts, which killed 55 people here, with the arrest of 10 SIMI activists, including the mastermind Mufti Abdul Bashar Ishali, arrested from Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, today.

Talking to mediapersons here, Director General of Police P C Pande claimed that the blasts conspiracy was completely planned and executed by the banned Students of Islamic Movement in India (SIMI), which has been renamed as Indian Mujhadeen to mislead the investigators. At one point, SIMI had definite linkage with notorious Pakistani intelligence agency, Inter Services Intelligence (ISI).

He further claimed that the mastermind, Abdul Bashar, was trained by the ISI. He had set up local modules of SIMI activists in several states of the country. He had also organised training camps for around 50 SIMI activists in the jungles of Ernakulam in Kerala in March. They were trained by SIMI chief Safdar Nagori.

Other camps were organised for the activists of Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh in the jungles of Halol in tribal district of Panchmahals in Gujarat in April.

Mr Pande identified the other nine SIMI activists as Zahid Shaikh (a key man in the conspiracy), Yunus Mansuri, Samsuddin Shaikh, Arif Kadri, Gyasuddin (all five from Ahmedabad), Sajid Mansuri, Imran, Usman Agarbattivala and Iqbal Shaikh (all four from Vadodara).

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